Smell from ensuite

E

eiregal

Registered User
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We're having a problem with a smell coming from our ensuite and it's driving me crazy! It holds a shower, toilet and sink. There is no window and we have had mildew forming on the wall above the shower. At first I thought the smell was coming from that but having washed the walls, the smell is as bad as ever. I have completely cleared the room and scrubbed it from top to bottom but still the smell lingers. Any ideas what it could be? A friend suggested we could have a leak under the floor and the wood is rotting. It's a damp/musty smell.
 
Some showers get hair trapped in them and start to smell, eliminate that possibility by putting plughole unblocker down there and flushing it with hot water for 5-10 minutes. It's probably worth tossing some down the sinkhole too, to be sure. Mr. Muscle unblocker is great stuff, it comes in a little orange bottle that'll do both.
 
Check that the smell is not coming from the seal on the toilet bowl(multiwick) or from the shower tray trap. The standard trap seal on many shower tray traps is too shallow. If the waste pipe from this tray is connected directly to a sewer/waste drainage system, it is not uncommon for the 'seal' in this trap to get siphoned out leading to the ingress of sewage smells.
 
Thanks dahamsta, but we've tried that. I actually recognise that smell and use the Mr. Muscle plughole unblocker which sorts that problem. The current smell is much worse than that.
 
villa 1 said:
Check that the smell is not coming from the seal on the toilet bowl(multiwick) or from the shower tray trap. The standard trap seal on many shower tray traps is too shallow. If the waste pipe from this tray is connected directly to a sewer/waste drainage system, it is not uncommon for the 'seal' in this trap to get siphoned out leading to the ingress of sewage smells.
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Thank you Villa 1. How do I check the shower tray trap? I must get googling!
 
If there's a gurgling noise when water is disgharging from the tray, this may be a sign of self siphonage within the waste pipe leading to trap seal loss, which may lead to nasty smells in the ensuite. Many ensuite shower trays have been fitted with traps that do not have the proper depth of water seal, especially if the waste pipe from the tray is connected directly to the sewer pipework.
Shallow seal 38 mm
Deep seal 76mm
You could also check the seal on the back of the toilet bowl to see if the smell is coming from that location.
 
Is there an electric shower in the ensuite with a pull-cord switch ?

Check it !! (Turn the power off first!)

We had the same problem a couple of years after moving into our new house and we could not work out what the smell was.
It turned out that the plastic in the back of the pull-cord switch was melting due to the current flowing through it ! It stank !
It was quite scary to think this was happening tbh.

I replaced the switch with the most expensive one I could find (reasoning that more expensive = better plastic) and it's not happened since. No smell !

If you don't feel confident with doing this yourself, contact a qualified electrician.
 
It could be a problem with the multiwik as mentioned by villa 1 above. I had a similar problem with a downstairs loo and had to mastic around the joint. This seemed to have solved the problem. I recently noticed a bad smell in the en-suite upstairs so I had the septic tank emptied and I must seal that joint with mastic. I have also noticed that the outside waste pipe has not been vented so that is probably not helping my problem. Another job to do. .
 
We had this problem recently in an upstairs en-suite. We were at our wits end and had tried everything suggested here to date. The problem was resolved when I became pregnant! My enhanced sense of smell detected a slight smell off the water. We took some water samples to a lab that a friend works in and they ran some tests. The results came back withthe news that there was a bacteria found in the cold water sample. This bacteria apparently grows at 25 deg c. We had not found the cold water to be warm so we were dubious. On further investigation we found the pipes feeding the ensuite were touching so heat was transferring from the hot pipe to the cold. We separated and insulated the pipes, ran the taps for a couple of mins and now the en -suite is smell free after 4 months of enduring the terrible smell. Hopefully this will help some body else!
 
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